Episode 3 - Fire in the Sky
Kyuemon looked off on the horizon, the city glimmering with lights during the night. He wasn't entirely sure where he was, but it was some kind of mountain which overlooked Zootopia, which seemed to come just short of the city's largest skyscraper.
He had been standing there for hours, ever since he was humiliated by Long. How could he have been so careless with Kamaitachi? Perhaps the years of death caused him to become sloppy with his plans, or perhaps the sight of those ridiculous Rangers made him too cocky.
Either way, it was a defeat, and a rather bad one too.
Suddenly, a familiar voice came from behind him.
"Well, well, well, what do we have here?" It said, causing Kyuemon to turn around abruptly. It was Enter, in his human form, gesturing to the fox with that smug smile.
"What do you want, Enter?" Kyuemon questioned, trying not to sound angry.
"Not much," He said, "I just thought you might like to get a higher standing with our new Master."
This piqued Kyuemon's interest. It was certainly something he'd have to do if he wanted to stay alive.
"I'm listening." The Yokai replied.
"Good, now here's what you need to do," Enter walked over to where the fox was standing, pointing towards the city, "Yogostein is preparing a plan, and I want you to distract those two Rangers while he does."
"That's it?" Kyuemon questioned, feeling a bit insulted, "You want me to go to the city, just so I can be humiliated, while you wait for someone else's plan to start?" He scoffed the human, "No thanks."
"I don't mean distract them with a fight, Mon Amie, I mean distract them... some other way." Enter clarified.
Kyuemon's interest picked up again, "What, exactly, do you mean by that?" He asked.
"You are a ninja, are you not?" Enter posed, "A master of illusion?"
"Indeed, I am." Kyuemon answered, a bit reluctantly. He could tell what Enter was getting at, and it bothered him. He could tell that, somehow, Enter had seen through his lie.
"Perhaps, then, you could trick those two into a distraction, hmm?" Enter turned to look at the fox.
"I suppose you won't leave until I accept." Kyuemon said, irritated, "Then I have no choice, I'll do it."
"Good," Enter enthused, "Make Monsieur Omnipotence proud, Kibaoni."
The last word made Kyuemon turn, drawing his sword, ready to strike the false human, only to find that he had disappeared. Kyuemon turned back to the city, looking at it as the moon reached the top of the sky.
Kyuemon then vanished in a burst of dark energy.
He slammed his foot against the roof of the building, this place was making him angry just looking around it.
Not a single factory in sight, no smoke stacks billowing out the wonderful toxins he loved, no exhaust coming from any of the cars. He should have assumed that animals would be better at taking care of their precious environment than humans, but this was ridiculous.
"BAH!" The robot yelled, looking to the skyline, "I say it's time to dirty this place up." He turned around, facing a familiar monster.
"Incinerator Banki, do you understand the plan?" he asked the strange robotic creature, who responded with a rather awkward salute, considering how low on its body it's head was.
"I understand, Master Yogostein!" It said to him.
"I'll reiterate anyway, just to make sure you know," Yogostein said, not exactly trusting the machine, "You are to eat as many objects as possible, and create the largest cloud of smog you possibly can, before the sun rises." He circled behind the Banki Beast, "Got it?"
"Uh, yes, sir." The furnace answered wearily.
"Good. THEN GET GOING!" With a swift smack from Yogostein's spear, the beast was flung off of the building, landing fast first on the concrete below.
The machine got up, and looked around, he was on the street, it was dark, and there was nobody around. Perfect, he could get the plan into motion quickly with this current setting. It was a rather nice looking street, though, lined with houses, not apartments.
"Best to go for the easy targets first." He said as he spied a garbage can sitting in front of one of the nearby houses.
He stomped across the lawn, instantly killing the grass he stepped on. Taking the lid off of the can, he saw exactly what he had hoped, rotten, stinking garbage. A perfect ingredient for noxious smoke.
"Thanks for the food!" He thanked, placing his hands together and bowing, before grabbing a handful of the garbage.
The orange panels above his head slid open, revealing a burning fire. Carelessly, the monster began throwing the contents of the garbage can into the hole, and in only a few minutes, the garbage can was nearly emptied.
"Alright," It said to itself, walking t the middle of the lawn, "Smoke, ON!" The incinerator clenched itself, as suddenly a large burst of noxious gas spewed from the four pipes on its head, which violently drifted across the street, before going into the air, creating a small, whirling cloud of smoke, barely noticeable on the night sky.
He looked at the lawn he was standing, the grass was now all dead, and so was the lawn next to it, as well as any piece of greenery on the entire street. He admired his work, his smoke wasn't this powerful last time.
"This plan's gonna go perfectly." He said to himself.
Judy had slept in, the excitement and action of the previous day had left her absolutely exhausted. Normally, she would be panicking, but due to some clever words from Nick the other day, they wouldn't have to go to the station, due to him lying about an injury she had gotten. Unfortunately, this also meant she couldn't leave the apartment,
She had been awake for maybe half an hour, thinking about how much her life had changed in only two days. He mind raced with thoughts about how there were apparently more than one of these weird monsters, how they were now known public figures, how they'd really, really have to hide their identities if they didn't want the press trying to harass them.
But most importantly, she thought about her actions the other day. Yes, she managed to defeat the monster, and save Lupina, but... she still didn't feel right having to kill, well, anything really, even though she had a feeling there really wasn't any other choice. That thought alone brought her dread.
She rolled over in her bed, spying her alarm clock in the corner of her eye. Ten AM, she should probably get up.
She drowsily flumped out of bed, and was about to head for the kitchen, when she heard noises coming from the living room.
She peaked past the corner of her bedroom, seeing Nick sitting on the sofa, a small bowl of blueberries on his lap, which he was eating like popcorn. The noises were coming from the TV. He was watching television.
"What are you doing?" She asked, yawning.
"Important research." He answered between mouthfuls of blueberries, eyes still glued to the TV.
"I doubt that." She sighed, heading to the kitchen.
He swallowed, "No, seriously, I'm doing something important." He paused the TV, and gestured for her to come over, "Look at this."
She sighed, and walked over, looking at the screen. She wasn't entirely sure what she was supposed to be looking at, it was definitely an old show, considering how degraded the film looked, but the paused screen only showed, a small group of animals, each one dressed in a very specific color, standing a round a very 90s looking building.
"Okay, what am I supposed to get from this?" She asked, a bit annoyed.
"Alright, bad time to pause it, but this is the show Lupina was talking about!" he said excitedly, gesturing to the TV screen.
"You mean that Zoo Rangers show?"
"Yeah, yeah!" Nick enthused, "The whole show's on PetFlix, and It's uncanny how similar it is to what we've been doing, but there ARE a few differences you might find..." He paused, "Interesting, maybe?"
"Alright, slick," She said, sitting next to the fox on the couch, "Lay it on me."
"Alright, basic plot summary," He started, placing the remote down, "Five teens get recruited by a giant floating head to save the world from aliens. There's the first difference." He pointed out to the rabbit.
"What, that we weren't recruited by a floating head?" She questioned.
"No, the difference is that there's five of them compared to us only having two." He corrected.
"Alright, I don't really get why that's important." Hopps said, the point was kind of trivial.
"Okay, yes, it isn't super important," Nick sarcastically replied, "But, what if it means there's three more of these Ranger guys running around the city, and we just haven't found them yet?" He posed.
"Well, if there were, after yesterday they probably would have let us known they exist." Judy reasoned.
He looked at her, a bit disappointed that his theory got shot down so quickly, but he continued, "Alright, so, every time they defeat a monster, this guy with a gun shows up, and he makes them turn into giant monsters."
"What." Judy responded flatly.
"Yes, it's weird, but whenever a monster turns into a giant, they call in their giant robot to fight it!" The fox excitedly told the rabbit, "What if we have giant robots?"
She looked at him quizzically. She wasn't really aware that he got this excited over superhero stuff, it was weird to see him so happy, considering Nick was calm and collected most of the time.
"Calm down, Nick, it's just a TV show." She told him, putting it rather simply.
He took a deep breath, "Yeah, I guess you're right." He admitted, finally attempting to calm down, "But, this is shockingly close to our lives right now, what if there's some connection?"
"I doubt it, Nick." She admitted, hopping down from the couch, and heading over to the window.
She flicked open the drapes, taking a look outside. It was unusually dark for being sor late in the day, the clouds were nearly pitch black, nearly blotting out the sun.
"Ugh, the weather's really bad today." Judy bemused.
"Wow," Nick said, looking out the window, "It's even worse than it was when I woke up."
Judy paused and looked at her partner, "How long have you been up?" She asked.
"Almost seven hours, Carrots."
She sighed, "Go back to bed, Nick."
"I've been up for too long, Carrots, I can't." He admitted, "Good thing we're not going anywhere today."
She sighed once again. What a strange morning.
"So, we're stuck in the apartment for the day, what should we do?"
"Wanna watch Zoo Rangers?"
Despite the strange weather, the mammals of Zootopia were still out, doing their daily business. For instance, the people visiting Boarsten Market, a small outdoor market, lined with fancy clothing shops, and cafes.
A lot of animals were spending their time and money at the market, but their day of leisure was about to be disrupted by something unusual.
"UGATZ!" A strange voice yelled, "Get me as much food as possible! Destroy whatever you have to!"
Suddenly, a group of strange creature's attacks, nothing like any of the animals there had ever seen. A group of bronze and white creatures that moved, and sounded, like machines, which promptly started tearing up the shops, gathering small objects in their arms, while also taking time to attack innocent passersby.
The group of robots waddled back over to who had commanded them, another, much stranger beast, resembling a furnace, but with a very large, exaggerated face located on its chest area, and instead of a head, it had the opening to a furnace, which could slide open.
They dumped the objects into a pile at the monster's feat, food splatting, metal clanging, a cacophony of noises that didn't seem to bother the robot.
"Good work," It said to the Ugutz, "Now, it's time to chow down!" It promptly began scarfing the objects that laid around him into the furnace opening, causing them to burn up inside of the monster's stomach.
Soon enough, the objects were all gone, chairs, umbrellas, sandwiches, only traces of them left as the monster patted his stomach.
"Alright, time for the next blast!" It clenched up, causing another large burst of smoke to expel itself from the creature's horn-like pipes, the smog flooding the market, before drifting into the air.
The fumes were incredibly strong, almost instantly knocking out any mammal with an above average sniffer, and taking a very short time to knock out any remaining.
"Hah, that was a good one." The furnace laughed to itself.
"INCINERATOR BANKI!" A familiar voice yelled, causing the machine to stop its celebration.
It turned around, it was his boss, Yogostein.
"Oh! Master Yogostein, what are you doing here?" It asked, trying to hide its fear, worried that the golden general was angry with him.
"I'm amazed at how well of a job you've been doing, honestly." Yogostein said, clacking his spear against the ground.
"O-oh, thank you, sir!" The incinerator thanked.
"But, you need to hurry up, it'll only be a few more hours before out plan has to go into action." He told the furnace.
"Alright, sir!" He paused for a second, scratching his face, "What is the plan anyway?"
"When the Swirling Evil Cloud Of Noxious Death reaches maximum pollution capacity, I will lower it down to ground level, causing a massive amount of chaos, definitely destroying this city in the process!" Yogostein explained.
The monster nodded, "Got it, boss! I'll get back to work immediately!" It saluted at him, and started to head off.
"What the-!?" Yogostein yelled, looking behind him.
"What is it, sir?" The furnace asked his boss, tilting over to see what he was looking at, which was... nothing.
"Uh," Yogostein muttered, "I was just kind of expecting them to show up by now."
"Who?"
"No one!" He yelled at the furnace, getting directly into his face, nearly knocking the machine over, "Don't jinx it. Go finish the mission, you have until five PM."
The incinerator got to his feet, "Yessir!" He abruptly finished, running off, a pack of Ugutz following him.
Yogostein sighed in relief, "I figured they would have figured out something was going on by now, strange."
Two PM, Nick and Judy had spent a couple hours marathoning Zoo Rangers. She could tell Nick was enjoying it, but she was kind of struggling to see the appeal of it. It was obviously just a children's show designed to sell toys, there wasn't much else, the writing was cheesy, and the acting was bad. But, Nick was still enjoying it, and she didn't want to make him upset.
Suddenly, a knock on the door. Nick quickly paused the TV, as Judy got up to check who it was.
Judy creaked the door open, "Hello?" She wearily greeted.
It was a fox, a strange looking one, young, perhaps 18, with dark yellow fur covering most of his visible body, but with pale-yellow fur covering his face, and strange red marks under his eyes. The fox also wore some strange clothes, a yellow and black hoodie with a tiger stripe pattern on it, and a pair of baggy black and purple pants.
"Uh, is this the apartment of Nick Wilde and Judy Hopps?" He meekly asked, with what appeared to be as light accent, one Hopps didn't recognize.
"Yeah, it, uh..." She paused, this seemed weird, "It is."
She noticed that he was holding a notepad. Was he a journalist? He didn't look like one, so maybe he was an undercover journalist? His nervous tone suggested otherwise, however.
"Uh," The fox mumbled, "You two are my heroes."
Judy's heart started to race. Had this fox figured out who they were, or was it for a different reason? Maybe they were his police heroes, not Superhero heroes?
"I came here to get your autographs, can I..." He paused, shuffling around awkwardly, "Can I come in?"
"Um, sure." Judy answered, also a bit awkwardly, "What's your name, anyway?" She asked, opening the door.
"Kyle Izanami," He answered, before bowing, "Thank you for inviting me in."
"That's a strange last name." Judy stated, "Are you foreign?"
"Oh, my father was, he moved here from overseas." He answered, scraping his feet off on the mat.
"Judy, who's that?" Nick worriedly asked, staring from the couch.
"This is Kyle, Nick, he's our guest." She calmly answered, "Don't be rude." She suddenly turned dark, staring at the fox.
"You know, you're way too friendly, Carrots." He jokingly retorted, "I probably woulda shooed the tyke away."
Kyle looked a bit dejected, and turned for the door, "Oh, if I'm interrupting something, I could come back later."
"No! No, no, please, stay for a bit, you weren't interrupting anything." Judy turned to glare at Nick, who sunk back into the couch, without breaking eye contact with the rather angry bunny.
Kyle sat down at the kitchen table, Nick getting up to make a "formal greeting", while Judy prepared a drink for their guest.
"Y'know," Nick started, "It's pretty rude to go to someone's house to get their autographs."
Kyle looked a bit upset, but Hopps came over, holding a cup of coffee, "Personally, I think it's very sweet that someone would come all this way to get our autographs." She said, putting the coffee in front of Kyle.
"Thank you," Kyle thanked, "Uh, for the coffee, and the kind words."
Hopps sat down, at the side of the table next to Nick, "So," She asked, a bit nervously, "Why did you call us your 'Heroes'?"
"Well," Kyle started, "Ever since I was a kid, I wanted to help people, but nobody really trusted me because I was a Predator. Everyone I tried to help looked at me like I was a monster, and others mocked me because I wasn't acting like I was supposed to."
He took a sip from his coffee, shuddering a bit, apparently he wasn't used to the taste.
"Is there something wrong with the coffee?" Judy asked.
"No, no." Kyle swallowed, "I just don't drink… coffee, that much."
"Anyway," He continued, "When you," He looked at Nick, who's ears perked up, "When you joined the ZPD, it was all over the place, it made me feel like I could be somebody, y'know. Help people."
Judy saw something change in Nick, previously he had a look of disinterest at this kit who claimed to be a fan, but when Kyle told his story, Nick's expression had changed to intrigue. It must've struck a chord with him.
"Alright, kid," Nick started, a bit of smugness in his voice, "We'll give you our autographs, but…"
He paused, as a look of worry grew on Kyle's face.
"You gotta hang out with us first." He finished.
Kyle's expression changed from worry to excitement, while Judy looked at her partner in amazement, surprised the fox would ever be so nice to anyone.
"Seriously!?" Kyle shouted in disbelief.
"Hey, we weren't doing anything today," He continued, "Might as well have a surprise guest over for a bit."
So, the three had a visit, talking about their lives, the events that led to Nick becoming a cop, and even enjoyed some pizza. By the time it was over, nearly three hours had passed.
"Oh," Kyle said, a bit surprised, "What time is it?" He asked, "I forgot to bring my phone."
Judy glanced at the clock hanging from the wall, "Four Forty, why do you ask?"
Kyle quickly got up, and bowed, "I'm sorry, but I promised I'd be home at five!" He apologized, and then pulled out his notepad, "Can you two please sign this?"
They did, and the fox said his goodbyes, rushing out the door.
"I've never seen you so friendly towards… anyone besides me, Nick." Judy told her partner.
"Yeah, don't expect any more of that any time soon." He replied with a smirk, crossing his arms.
However, just outside the door, Kyle was still there, his eyes beginning to glow an eerie yellow, before he disappeared in a burst of dark energy.
Meanwhile, On the top of a roof, overlooking the duo's apartment, stood a tan cheetah, dressed in a long coat, a pair of goggles over his eyes, which let him see inside of the two's small apartment.
As the yellow fox left, he removed the goggles, and turned around. Sure enough, in a burst of darkness, Kyuemon had appeared.
"Bravo, Mon Amie," He congratulated the Yokai, removing his feline disguise, returning to his human-looking form, "I had no idea you were such a master of improv."
"I'm not," The fox coldly stated. For once, Enter had a genuine look of confusion on his face.
"Then, what exactly do you call that?" He asked.
Kyuemon chuckled, "Simple," In a puff of smoke, Kyuemon had turned into the fox that had been visiting the two cops only moments before, "This body is dead. He died four years ago in an assault."
Enter stared at the fox, still confused.
"I used a Copy Ninjitsu to copy his wandering spirit," The fox continued, "Which allowed me to copy his body and memories."
Enter was beginning to understand, "Hm," He laughed, "That's what I should have expected from a Yokai ninja." He turned around, looking back at the building, seeing the rabbit and fox go about, unaware what had just happened.
"So everything you told them was true, huh?" He asked the fox, who had returned to his Yokai form.
"To a point." Kyuemon answered.
"I feel we can make more use of this than just as a distraction, Mon Amie."
"What do you mean?" Kyuemon asked, flatly, but with a hint of interest.
Enter let out an uproarious laugh.
"This should be the last meal before it's finished!" The robot yelled to itself, reclining in a chair on top of a roof, as its minions brought it more objects to eat.
It stared up at the giant cloud it had created, which covered the city from inch to inch what a wonderful work of pollution.
"INCINERATOR BANKI!" A loud, commanding voice yelled, causing the furnace to topple over.
"Y-yes, Master Yogostein, Sir?" It said in a hurry as it got up and saluted.
"It's almost time, you lazy steam dryer," He yelled to his minion, hitting him with his spear, "Get back to work!"
"I'm almost done!" It pleaded, "Give me a second and I'll finish the SECOND!"
It stumbled over to the pile of objects the Ugutz had gathered, beginning to toss them into its furnace hole. In only a few seconds, the pile was gone.
"FINAL SMOKE EXPULSION!" It yelled, clenching once again, causing a large burst of smoke to be released from his pipes, which floated into the air, fusing with the swirling cloud.
The swirling cloud began to writhe, causing Yogostein to let out a maniacal laugh, as he walked to Incinerator Banki.
"Good job," He congratulated the furnace monster, "But there's still one part left…"
Quickly, Yogostein ripped open a panel on the back of the Incinerator Banki, and pulled out a small device, resembling a remote control, and slammed it inside of him.
"Ack!" The burner yelled, "What was that!?"
"That device I installed into you is timed to go off in around five minutes, five PM on the dot," He explained, "It's designed to attract the multiple compounds of the smoke you create, meaning the SECOND will travel to the ground level as long as you STAY on the ground level!"
"Wow, sir," The Banki said in awe, "You're such a genius."
"I know." The mechanical monster boasted, "NOW GET GOING!" He pushed the furnace, knocking him off the rather large building, causing it land with a loud clank against the ground.
"Only a few seconds remaining." Yogostein said to himself, watching the cloud.
Soon, the cloud began crackling with energy, the sound of thunder striking as well.
"YES!" Yogostein yelled proudly, "Soon, the SECOND will descend upon this wretched city, and turn it into a noxious, filthy wreck!"
He was still watching.
"Any second now." He said to himself, less excitedly.
It was definitely moving, but it was barely noticeable to the naked eye, it hadn't even reached the tip of the central tower, which Yogostein measured it was only a few meters above.
He looked over the building, seeing Incinerator Banki laying on the ground.
"Hey, uh," he called down to the robot, "This might take a while. Go do something else while it lowers!"
Quickly, the Banki Beast got up, looking up at his boss, "Got it!"
"UGUTZ!" He cried, throwing several nuts and bolts onto the ground.
The nuts and bolts quickly reformed themselves into around a dozen of the robotic soldiers.
"Let's go make some trouble while we wait, shall we?" He told his minions, who raised their arms, ready to go.
Five ten PM.
It had only been a short time since Kyle had left the apartment, andthe two were cleaning up, in only a few hours they had to go to bed, they were definitely heading back to work tomorrow.
"You sure we can't weasel out of another day, Carrots?" Nick jokingly asked the rabbit, who was cleaning up in the kitchen, while the fox relaxed on the couch.
"No," She said sternly, "And I'd really appreciate it if you helped clean up, for once."
"Hey, don't look at me," He said, "I already readied up the uniforms, I've done my part."
She let out an annoyed sigh at the lazy fox, when suddenly they heard a loud noise from outside, shocking them both, and causing Judy to drop the glass she was carrying, it shattering against the ground.
"What was that!?" Judy yelled, the fox getting to his feet and looking out the window, his ears drooping.
"Uh, Carrots, we miiiight have a problem."
Judy ignored the glass, and rushed to the window, looking out herself. What she saw was what looked like the storm cloud from earlier in the day, but it was crackling with unnatural looking lightning, and glowing a menacing purple.
She quickly leaped over to the TV, turning it to ZNN, where it displayed the porcupine from the other day, standing in the middle of a ruined city block.
"-stressing turn of events, our series of reports about the strange monster attacks, and the mysterious, unnatural black cloud, have all culminated in, what very well could be, the end of Zootopia."
The camera focused on the black cloud above, before quickly going down, showing a strange monster, which walked towards the reporter.
"Oh god n-" It cut off, it seeming like the cameraman had dropped the camera, and cut to a technical issues screen.
Judy turned to Nick, who stared at her with his jaws open, like he was about to say something.
"Let's watch a children's show all day," Judy said, doing her best impression of Nick, "Nothing bad will happen!"
"You're blaming this on me?!" Nick yelled, "How was I supposed to know there was a monster running around!?"
"Well, if you had been watching the news instead of Zoo Rangers..." She answered back, sounding rather angry.
"Alright, whatever," He said, dismissing her words, "Either way, we have to go stop that monster before it does..." He paused, a look of confusion on his face, "Whatever its planning on doing with that cloud."
"Alright," Judy said, pulling out the motorcycle tag, "Let's get going."
The furnace monster laughed to itself, watching the animals it was terrorizing run, not realizing they didn't really have anywhere safe to run to, since, in a short time, the evil smoke would descend on them, wiping everyone in the city out.
He looked up at the cloud. Barely just passed the top of the central tower.
Alright, maybe not a short time, but soon.
Suddenly, he heard the sounds of an engine, turning around to see two motorcycles heading towards him.
The riders leaped off of their bikes, jumping straight towards him. In a split second, he felt the full brunt of two kicks, and two motorcycles, slamming into him, knocking him away.
The monster grunted as he got up, staring at the two new, but somehow familiar, costumed characters in front of him.
"You!" It yelled, pointing at the two, "My boss warned me about you two."
"Well, he didn't warn you enough." Nick said, drawing his sword, as Judy drew her daggers.
Judy quickly glanced at the monster, looking a bit confused, and then lowered her weapons.
"Okay, so," She said to herself, "The first monster was a weasel, and the second one was a praying mantis."
She turned to the monster, which neither looked organic, or like an animal, "So what the heck are you?"
"What?" The monster also looked confused, "Well, I'm-" He was quickly interrupted by a booming voice from above them.
"He is a Barbaric Banki Beast," Looking up, they saw another inorganic looking monster, colored a dull gold, wearing what looked like a cape made out of a trash bag, and wielding an over-sized, jagged spear, "And I, if you're wondering, am Land Pollution Minister Yogostein!" He announced, before leaping down from the rooftop he was standing on.
He landed with a thud, continuing his thought, "Though, without the Sky and Water Ministers, I guess I'm just the Pollution Minister now." Yogostein walked over to the monster, and hit it on the back with his spear, "This is Incinerator Banki, he is a robotic monster designed to cause pollution, which you filthy animals seem to lack the concept of."
"We know what pollution is," Nick corrected, "We just got rid of it a long time ago, really wasn't that hard."
"Shut it!" He yelled at the fox, clanking his spear against the ground, "You environmentally conscious types make me sick!"
"Wait," Judy yelled, stepping between Nick and the golden robot, "So, you're the third 'main villain' type we've run into," She continued, looking at Yogostein, "How many are there?"
"Well, considering you'll all be dead soon, I suppose I can tell you..." He paused, clinking his spear against the ground, "There are exactly six of us, and it seems you've met my associates, Kyuemon and Long, correct?"
They turned to each other. They were only half done even meeting these villainous weirdos, who knows how long this entire thing could go on for if they kept running away.
"I said," Yogostein asked again, a hint of smugness in his voice, "Isn't that correct, Miss Judy Hopps, and Mister Nick Wilde?"
At the exact same time, the two's hearts dropped, it was visible even in front of the masks, as they stepped back, clearly unprepared for something like that to happen.
Nick stepped forward again, trying to regain composure, "Hopps? Wilde? Who are those?" He tried to sound confused, but ended up sounding more suspicious, he sighed and drooped down, realizing it wasn't working. "You're not buying this, are you?"
"Not for a second, fox." Yogostein said, "Anyway, in only a few..." He looked upwards at the cloud, "Hours, my Super Evil Cloud of Noxious Death will descend upon you all, suffocating the entire city!" he boasted, letting out a laugh.
"What!?" Judy yelled, pulling her weapons back up, "You're gonna kill everything with that cloud!?"
"Yeah!" The furnace monster yelled, patting his stomach area, "And the only way to stop it is to defeat me!"
Yogostein clanked the incinerator on the back of the head with his spear again, "Idiot! You just put the plan in jeopardy!" The furnace monster covered his mouth, realizing his mistake.
"But, sir," The monster pleaded, "I can take them, they're rattled enough as it is!"
"Whatever, just make sure they don't scrap you!" He yelled at the monster, "UGUTZ!" He yelled, throwing a bunch of nuts and bolts to the ground, which formed into a group of bronze and white robots, each carrying a small club weapon.
"Don't let those two get near Incinerator Banki!" Yogostein yelled to the foot soldiers, before disappearing into a puff of inky black smoke.
"Hah!" The monster laughed, stepping in front of the weaker robots, "You two better be careful around fire, because you're gonna get BURNED!" With that last word, two giant fireballs shot from the pipes on the monster's head, directly towards them.
the two jumped out of the way, as the fireballs hit the ground, causing two massive explosions to burst from where they hit.
"Well," Nick said, getting to his feet, drawing his sword out, "You better be able to take the heat!"
He rushed forward, towards the furnace monster, and slashed his sword into it.
Unfortunately, this didn't exactly go as Nick had planned, as, instead of slicing into the monster, the sword simply made a loud clang sound, causing the fox to shake from the vibrations it caused.
The monster looked the fox directly in the eye, "Seriously?" It said in disbelief, before kicking the fox away, causing him to land next to his blue partner.
"That's the best you can do?" The furnace asked, shrugging, "When Yogostein said you were trouble, I thought he meant actual trouble, not pest trouble."
"Alright," Judy said as her dazed partner got up, "Our weapons won't work against the big guy, but what about the small guys?"
She readied her daggers, and dashed at a group of the Ugutz, jumping upwards, and striking four of them with her knives. It appeared the Ugutz were made of much lighter metal, as she sliced right through them, causing visible tears in their metal flesh, which made their inner machinery visible.
She called over to Nick, "Alright! We can take these guys at least!"
"Got it!" Nick yelled back, rushing towards the mob of mechanical men.
He sliced his sword directly into one's neck, causing it's robotic head to fly off and hit the ground with a metallic clunk.
Again, this didn't go exactly as planned.
Instead of disappearing, or falling over, the mechanical robot instead decided to attack the fox, even without it's head. Nick managed to block it before it hit, but this left a big question in his mind.
"Blue?" He yelled, struggling with the robot, "How are we gonna beat these guys?"
He looked over to his partner, who was also struggling with a few of the Ugutz, having more trouble than he was, actually, since she was significantly smaller, and was dealing with four of them at the same time.
She hopped back, away from her opponents, and turned to look at her partner, struggling on his own.
"I think we need to make a tactical retreat, Red!" She yelled, trying not to sound scared.
"That's a good idea!" Nick said, himself backing away from his headless opponent.
They both turned to their bikes, currently parked in the middle of the road, and rushed to them, driving off and away from this seemingly unwinnable fight.
"COWARDS!" The burner yelled at the fleeing heroes, before turning to the Ugutz, one of which was pickig up it's own severed head, "Come on, lets go make trouble somewhere else."
He looked back at the cloud, it was significantly lower than the last time he looked, maybe around a third of the way down the central tower.
"We got time."
They arrived back at the apartment, silence filling the room. They couldn't beat those monsters, their weapons just weren't enough for their robotic bodies.
Nick continued to look out the window, watching the cloud slowly descend into the city. It had already reached some of the taller builders that weren't the central tower, it wasn't looking good.
Judy, meanwhile sat on the couch, her face in her paws, devastated by the fact they couldn't beat this monster. Had they already failed only three days into their superhero career?
"Judy," Nick asked solemnly, "What are we supposed to do? How can we save everyone?"
"I don't know, Nick." She said flatly, muffled by her paws.
It didn't seem like anyone knew exactly what was going on, besides the monsters themselves, and her and Nick. There was no evacuation alert, presumably because the Mayor simply believed it was just a weird cloud, and not something that was being used to bring destruction. Who knew at this point.
"This is a disaster." She said quietly to herself.
Suddenly, a knock at the door
"We're not accepting any more autographs today." Nick yelled to the door, sarcastically.
The knock got louder, turning into a pound.
"Alright!" Nick yelled, causing the pounding to stop.
He opened the door, there was nobody there, "What the..." He paused, noticing something large on the ground. A suitcase, like the one they received from Kruger.
"Uh, Judy?" He said, turning back to his distraught partner, "We might have the solution to our problem."
She looked up, and bounded over to the door, lifting up the suitcase, bringing it to the dinner table.
Quickly, she snapped it open, revealing the contents.
Inside were what she would definitely call weapons. One large, red gun, designed with a fox's head as the barrel. To most mammals, it would be a pistol, but in the paws of who she suspected it was for, it would easily require two paws to carry.
There were two other weapons, small blue pistols, perfect for her to carry. They resembled rabbit ears, of course, but there were also two more of the tags put into the briefcase as well, this time with markings resembling each color's respective gun.
Nick lifted the big gun out effortlessly, seemed it only looked heavy, and Judy picked up the twin guns.
"So," Nick asked, looking down the sights of his new, big gun, "You think these things have the firepower to blast through that robot?"
Judy twirled one of her guns on her fingers, "I would say probably."
"Should we test them out?" Nick asked.
"No." Judy objected, "No shooting in the house."
In all honesty, the rampaging was getting kind of boring for our incinerator monster. He was going for hours, and the cloud was still only halfway down, this was taking a lot longer than he had hoped.
At this point, he wished someone like the Go-Ongers would show up, so at the very least something interesting would happen. Maybe those Rangers he scared off earlier would come back, but that seemed unlikely.
Then he spied something, what looked like a child, stumbling around, crying out for its parents, some kind of... cat? Dog? He wasn't good at telling animals apart, but he was good at killing them.
"You're gonna get smoked, brat!" It yelled at the crying child, approaching it menacingly, his size easily dwarfing the... was it a pig?
Suddenly, a loud noise, a sharp pain in the back, and explosions.
"What the?" The Banki yelled turning to face whoever had just shot him. It wa sthe two rangers from before, holding stuff he didn't see them with before, they looked like guns.
Suddenly, the fox pointed his rather large blaster at him, and fired, causing another explosion directly on the furnace's face, launching him backwards, over the crying child, and into the wall behind him.
Judy ran over to the child, a wolf cub, "It's okay," She said, trying to calm him, "But you really need to run away from here as fast as you can!" The cub obliged, and ran away from the site as fast as his little legs could carry him.
The broiler got up, locking eyes with his foes, "So you're back for round two, huh?" It mocked, "And I see you got some new toys, too! Think they're strong enough to dent me?"
"Strong enough to shut your mouth!" Nick yelled, pulling out the tag that matched his gun, slipping it into the slot at the top of the blaster.
He pulled the trigger, causing the eyes on the gun to light up, as it emitted the jungle noises that the wrist device had when they summoned the bikes, as well as the same voice.
"BRING THE HEAT!
BURNING HEART!
BOOM BOOM!
VICKSCANNON!"
Sure enough, a massive blast of fire shot from the gun, directly into the incinerator's strange face, causing a massive explosion that ended up knocking it directly through the brick wall of the building behind it.
The furnace robot stepped out from the ruined wall, parts of it on fire, which it tried to put it quickly, "Yikes!" It yelled, patting down a flame on it's arm, "That's hot, even for me!"
"Wow," Nick said proudly, holding the gun in both arms, "This thing's pretty powerful!"
"Let's try mine out." Judy said, pulling out her tag. This time, she stuck the tag in the hole in the side of one of the guns. She looked at the other, noticing that it also had a hole, designed to fit the other side of the tag.
So, she stuck the other gun onto the other side of the tag, it fit perfectly, and she pulled the triggers, causing, again, the jungle noises and voice.
"CUTTING ON THROUGH!
SLICING THE SKY!
CHANBARA BAN!
RABBLASTERS!"
The trigger pulled, a current of energy gathered between the two guns, forming a ball of energy, which quickly shot out, turning into what looked like a blade made of lasers, piercing the strange symbol located on the incinerator's chest.
It yelled in pain, grasping at the wound, removing it's hands revealed that the blast had cut a hole clean through his armor, revealing it's mechanical insides.
"Alright, Red," She said to her partner, pulling her daggers out, "That's where we hit him!" Nick pulled out his sword, nodding.
The two rushed at the monster, who was still reeling from the pain, striking him in the stomach at the exact same time, again launching him backwards, this time destroying the plywood wall on the inside of the building.
"I can't fight in these conditions!" The furnace bot yelled to himself, scrambling to get up. He looked around, trying to find something.
What he saw was good enough, a shelf covered in metal picture frames, each depicting a family of some animal he couldn't recognize.
He rushed over, opening his furnace hole, and began tossing each of the pictures into it. When they were all gone, he walked back out to greet the two meddlesome Rangers, patting his stomach.
"You two are gonna love this!" He yelled to them, who looked on in confusion as the beast began clenching and groaning.
Soon enough, the furnace had turned entirely red, as it seemed it was boiling something inside of itself. Then, they looked in horror, as the wound they had just caused began to heal, metal growing over where it had once been.
The monster laughed, rubbing its now restored symbol, "As long as my furnace still burns, I can absorb metals into my body and heal ANY wounds!"
"Are you kidding me!?" Judy yelled, her anger surprising Nick.
"TAKE THIS!" The robot yelled, shooting off two fireballs from his pipes at the Rangers, who jumped out of the way, and ran off behind a car.
"So, this guy's basically invincible, huh?" Nick asked, clearly worried.
"Looks like it..." Judy said, looking up at the central tower, which the cloud was now nearly to the bottom of, "And we're running out of time!"
"We need something to, I dunno..." Nick said, thinking, "Cool him down, but where could we..." Suddenly, Nick's ears perked up, he figured it out.
"The Rainforest District."
"What about it?" Judy asked, a bit confused.
"There's the sprinkler system there, right?" He continued, "It goes off every thirty minutes, but the water is still pressurized while it isn't going!"
The realization dawned on Judy too, "If we can get him to the Rainforest District, we can use the water there to put him out, and finish him off!"
"Exactly!" Nick shouted.
"Now," Judy mused, "We just need to trick him into going there..." She paused for a second, thinking, "The western station, the train there always goes through the Rainforest, right?"
"So, if we get him onto the train," Nick said, finishing her thought, "Then we can get him there easily!"
"He won't go willingly..." She said, and then looked at Nick, "Think you can pull some of your charms off behind that mask, Red?"
"I can do better than that," He chuckled, pulling out the motorcycle tag, "I can pull some anti-charms."
With the loud sound of the device, Nick rode off on the Kitsunider, approaching the furnace and driving circles around him for a few second, trying to catch every detail he could of the monster.
"What is this!?" It yelled at the motorcycle bound fox, who skidded off, and parked a few feet in front of the monster.
He pretended to sniff the air, and made a disgusted motion at the monster, "Yuck!" He yelled, catching the monster's attention, "What's that awful smell? It's like if you mixed trash with a burning fire!" He yelled obnoxiously, trying to goad the monster into responding, "Oh wait, it's just you!" He gestured to the furnace, hoping to get it angry enough to chase after them.
"Thanks, I pride myself on my noxious fumes!" The Incinerator said proudly to the fox.
Strike one.
Nick scratched his head, he thought that one would work, but he didn't account that a pollution monster would probably be proud of how bad it smelled.
"Hmm." Nick tried to think of another one, "Who uses incinerators anymore, anyway?" He said out loud, shrugging, "Everyone uses heaters now, incinerators are too big and clunky to keep around."
This did seem to anger the robot a bit, but not enough, as it responded in a surprisingly calm manner, "Actually," It said, raising its finger, "Incinerators can be used for many things, did you know that the government still uses incinerators to burn sensitive documents? It doesn't have to involve heating to be useful!"
Strike two.
He was kind of out of ideas, at least, until the revving of an engine was heard, and Hopps drove over on the Usagider, parking her slightly shorter bike next to the fox's.
"HEY! UGLY!" She yelled to the robot, who looked at her, a bit annoyed, "YOUR FACE IS STUPID!"
"WHAT!?" The furnace yelled, enraged, "My face is a marvel of engineering! You'll pay for that insult!"
"If you wanna fight us, you better catch us!" Hopps yelled back, as the two started the bikes and drove off.
The Banki glanced around quickly, looking to see if there was anything it could use to catch up with the jerks who had insulted his face. Indeed, there was, a regular sized bicycle, the pedal kind, sitting in front of one of the nearby buildings.
The furnace grabbed it, and hopped on, beginning to pedal with all his might. Surprisingly, in only a few moments, he was nearly caught up with the two motorcycles.
Judy glanced back, seeing the ridiculous sight of this menacing robot riding a bicycle, and somehow managing to almost keep up with them.
"This is absolutely ridiculous." She said to her partner, who was close enough to hear her.
"What do you expect," He said, "The guy's a literal robot, of course he has the strength to keep up."
Judy sighed, keeping her eyes on the road. The train station was only a few minutes away at this point, and the cloud was getting closer and closer to the ground.
The two skidded to a halt in front of the station, at nearly the exact same time. They stared up at it, it was a bit run down, but the station had been in use for decades, and the city had really never had enough time to truly renovate it.
Judy looked to her side, seeing the monster riding towards them on it's bicycle. Quickly she hopped off, and began taunting it
"COME GET US, WEIRDO!" She yelled, hoping the monster could hear her. It most likely did, as the furnace began pedaling even harder.
"Ready to do this?" Nick asked his partner, who nodded in response, as they rushed into the station, the monster shortly following them after parking his stolen bike.
"EVERYONE" Judy yelled running towards the nearest train, "GET OUT OF HERE!"
There was panic, especially after somebody yelled "monster!" Probably not the ordered evacuation Judy had wanted, but they really did not have time.
The two reached the nearest train, a large orange, liner, as they saw the incinerator robot, walking towards them, pushing civilians out of the way as he tromped towards the two heroes who had insulted his face.
The two ran into the train car, seeing it was nearly full, "EVERYONE!" Nick yelled, "Move to the next car over, some stuff is going to be going down in this one!"
It seemed the people listened to the fox, and most of them made their way to the second car of the train, which was now absolutely packed with animals. The two took a seat on the train's sizable seats, waiting for their "guest" to arrive.
Sure enough, he did, but before the monster could attack, he got distracted by the train itself, "Wow, this is the most spacious train I've ever been on!" It admired, "Usually my head scrapes against the top, but here it doesn't even reach!"
"Well," Judy said, "It is designed to house a variety of different animals, some of which can be… large."
"That's pretty neat!" He said, taking a seat next to the two, "Hey, wait a second…"
The incinerator got up, turning to the two costumed heroes, "I'm supposed to be fighting you two!"
Quickly, Nick and Judy got up, standing on their seats, having pulled out their weapons, ready for the fight. Suddenly, the train started to move, nearly knocking the three of their feet.
"I say we need some more passengers," The monster said, pulling out a pile of nuts and bolts, throwing them in the air, "UGUTZ!"
Suddenly, a bunch of the robots from before appeared, around 5 of them, ready to fight the two Rangers.
"I say we test out our new gear!" Nick said, pulling out his large blaster, Judy pulling out her blasters and spinning them around.
They aimed at the robots, Nick firing a large, powerful shot at one of the Ugutz, blasting a large hole straight through it, causing the robot to fall over.
Judy, however, blasted two of the Ugutz right in the head with both of her blasters, cleaving them in two, causing them to collapse into each other and fall to the ground.
The two remaining robots looked at each other, and ran behind the more powerful robot, deciding cowering in fear was better than actually fighting the two.
"What?!" The incinerator yelled to the two cowering Ugutz, "Stop hiding, and fight them!" It pushed both of the robots directly in front of the two Rangers, who blasted them nearly instantly, turning them to scrap.
"Hah!" The robot laughed, "If you think that's all I got…" He paused, reaching around his body, trying to find something, before realizing he had no bolts left to spare to summon his minions, "Then you'd be right!"
The two leaped from their seats, pulling out their melee weapons, striking the monster directly in his ugly face, knocking him backwards onto the other side of the car.
"FIREBALLS!" It yelled, shooting two fireballs at the two, them quickly dodging out of the way, only barely avoiding the explosion it caused, revealing the giant hole it had created.
Looking out, they realized they were passing through the Rainforest District, it was time to get to part two of the plan.
"Ready, Red?" Judy asked, her partner nodding.
They quickly circled around the robot, jumping on the seats behind it, and whacking him in the back with both of their weapons, causing it to stumble forward, but not out of the hole it had created. To solve this, the two jumped off of the seats, both of them kicking the monster directly in his face, causing him to finally be pushed out of the car, letting out a scream as he did. A few moments after, the two jumped out after him.
The robot landed on the wet ground with a splat, while the two Rangers managed to land on a tree that was rather close to the ground, sliding off its large, tropical leaves and onto the ground safely.
The monster stood up, with trouble, spitting the dirt out of its mouth, literally steaming as the moisture on him quickly turned to vapors, "Gravity's just not my friend today." He lamented.
He turned to the two, it suddenly starting to rain, giving the moment a dramatic feel to them.
The furnace looked up, he saw the cloud, finally having reached a point where it could visibly be seen rotting off the tallest trees in the rainforest.
"You two are too late!" It yelled at them, "Any second, the SECOND will bring about your demises!"
Nick looked up. It wasn't rain, it was a sprinkler, there was one nearby. He glanced around, trying to spot the pillar it was stationed on. He saw it, behind the monster, rising high above it. Nick glanced to Judy, who nodded, she must have seen it as well.
"Alright," Nick whispered to her, "You distract him, I'll blast it open." He saw her glance at him, about to say something, but he quickly interrupted, knowing exactly what she was going to say, "My gun is bigger, it'll make the bigger hole, you're quicker, you can avoid him easier."
She sighed, and nodded, accepting the plan, before running up to the monster, striking him with her daggers, directly in his face.
"Your face is still ugly!" She yelled as she leaped back from the monster, who growled at her, stepping closer, leaving a large footprint in the mud.
Nick rushed behind the monster, who was completely ignoring him, and pulled out his gun, aiming it at the pillar.
"You have absolutely awful manners, rabbit!" The furnace yelled indignantly, "Do you know what you should say when you insult someone?"
"Yeah, I do." She said smugly.
A loud explosion from behind him, the monster turned around to see what had happened, hearing the rabbit say two words.
"Pool's open."
An incredibly fast burst of water sprayed the monster directly in the face, it gurgling in pain as it just kept spraying and spraying him, not stopping. Soon, the rain subsided, and the water finally stopped shooting directly into his face.
He grunted, turning around, seeing the two heroes looking directly at him, their weapons drawn.
YOU TWO ARE GONNA PAY FOR THAT!" It yelled, "FIREBALL!"
Nothing happened.
"FIREBALL!" It yelled again.
Again, nothing.
"Fireball?" It said wearily, noticing that, instead of a large fireball shooting form his pipes, there was instead a small stream of water trickling from them.
"What the!?" The monster said bewildered, "You turned me into a water pump!"
"Looks like you finally decided to…" He paused, "COOL DOWN!" He joked, nudging Judy in the arm.
She looked at him, shaking her head, "Let's just finish this."
Suddenly, their weapons began glowing, "What the?" Judy said to herself.
"Wait," Nick said, "I think I know what to do." Quickly, he placed the sword onto the bottom of his gun, where it clipped on perfectly, now resembling an overly large bayonet.
"Oh!" Judy said excitedly, "I get it!" She pulled out one of her guns, and one of her daggers, she placed the dagger on the side of the gun, then pulling out the other two, combining them as well, making so that she had two guns with large knives sticking off the side.
"We gotta join them together!" Nick said aloud to his partner, who nodded, and placed her guns onto the side of his, causing them to fuse together perfectly.
"Ack," Nick grunted, struggling to lift the gun up, "Okay, now it's heavy. Little help, Blue?"
"Sure thing!" She obliged, grabbing onto the bottom of the gun, lifting it up, helping to aim it at the monster.
Nick pulled out the tag for his blaster, placing it in the slot on the gun, "Let's do this!" he yelled, pulling the trigger.
The gun fired a massive beam, which flew directly into the incinerator monster's face, leaving it with only a few last words.
"LOOKS LIKE I GOT BURNED!"
As soon as the beam hit the monster, it curved upwards, lifting the monster up off the ground, and into the sky, shooting him right through the cloud, and up past even the central tower, where an absolutely massive explosion occurred.
The two stared up, the massive bazooka suddenly disassembling into its parts. The cloud dissipated, surprisingly quickly, considering its size.
Judy dropped down into the mud, sighing in relief, as Nick continued to look upwards in awe. His eyes widened. Something was falling from the explosion.
It was falling towards them.
"LOOK OUT!" he yelled, grabbing his partner from the dirt, leaping out of the way as the object crashed directly where they were standing.
It looked like a furnace, only horribly crushed from the distance it had fallen. Soon after, a second object fell on top of it, a small silver gear, clinking against the furnace as it splatted into the mud.
Nick reached over to look at the mud covered gear, only to feel a swift smack to his gut.
"Excuse me!" A familiar gruff voice yelled at him, "That's MINE!"
It was Yogostein, he had smacked Nick away with his spear, and then picked up the gear, "Hmm, this might be useful later." He said to himself, looking at the gear.
"HEY!" Judy yelled, getting to her feet, "Removing evidence from a crime scene is illegal!"
"Yeah," Nick joined in, crossing his arms, "And so is excessive pollution, assaulting an officer, assault in general, AND inciting a panic!"
"Why do you think I'd care!?" Yogostein yelled to them, both confused and angry at them, before disappearing into a puff of inky black smoke.
Judy growled, "I'm SO going to arrest all of those guys!" She stomped her foot on the ground, causing mud to spray on their suits.
Nick shook his leg, attempting to get the mud off of his leg, "I think it's time we head back, Blue."
The two arrived back home, their normal outfits perfectly clean, since all the dirt had only gotten on their super suits, which seemed to vanish every time they untransformed from them.
"Well," Nick said, relaxing back on the couch after all that running around, "That was an eventful day, huh, Carrots?" He yawned.
"Yeah," She replied, also deciding to sit on the couch, "Wonder if any of this was on the news?" She asked, flipping the TV back on.
Sure enough, the report was a live feed of a public announcement from Lionheart, seemingly rushed, due to the only thing on the stage being an undecorated pedestal.
"As I had predicted, this entire problem was solved by our new city heroes!" He announced proudly, "They prevented any casualties, and managed to get rid of that awful storm cloud."
"Is this why you didn't order an immediate evacuation, Mayor Lionheart? You predicted that there was no need?" The reporter held the microphone up for the lion to answer.
"Indeed! There was no reason to worry, none at all." He answered, "I would personally like to thank these Zoo Rangers for their heroics, but since we don't know who they are, I'll just say, thank you."
Judy flipped off the TV, chuckling to herself, "Least we're being appreciated, right Nick?" She didn't get a response, "Nick?"
She turned, seeing her partner, completely passed out, and snoring loudly.
She laughed to herself, "That's what happens when you stay up too late." She got up and headed to her room, turning around to see her partner, who had fell on his side shortly after she got up, "Good night, Nick."
Yogostein appeared in a puff of smoke, holding the gear he used to create Incinerator Banki, "That plan was a bust." He grunted to himself, taking his seat at the table.
"Sounds pretty rough" Sambash said, placing his gloved hand on Yogostein's shoulder, "Getting your ass kicked by some woodland animals, I mean." He took a swig from a bottle of whiskey.
"Don't talk to me about." He shoved the biker back, and placed his hands on his face, "The boss probably think's I'm a failure."
"Heh," Sambash laughed to himself, "I know that feeling. Hey, want some?" He offered the bottle to the distraught robot, he grabbed it and started gulping it down.
Yogostein sighed, placing the bottle down in front of him, "Thank you, Sambash." He politely said, still sounding depressed, "It's nice to know there's another alcohol aficionado here."
"Hey, don't make it sound so fancy." The biker said, taking a seat next to the robot.
Yogostein looked up from his depression, noticing that nobody else was around, "Where is everyone?" He asked Sambash.
"The fox guy and the human are off doing something, the samurai is off sulking somewhere, and I have no idea where that clown dude is." Sambash answered, placing his feet on the table.
"I'm under here!" A shrill voice yelled.
The two looked under the table, sure enough, Yabaiba was relaxing underneath it.
"How are you supposed to be my partner!?" The robot yelled at him.
Yabaiba shrugged, "I dunno." He answered simply.
The two looked up from the table, Yogostein grabbing the bottle once again, and swigging down more of it.
Suddenly, a pulse shook the room, signaling that their master was ready to speak.
"YOGOSTEIN, YOU HAVE PERFORMED WELL" It echoed.
"Wh-what!?" Yogostein responded in amazement, "Really!?"
"INDEED, YOU BROUGHT MASS PANIC TO THE CITY, ENOUGH FOR ME TO BEGIN PHASE TWO OF THE OPERATION" It continued.
"Great!" Sambash said, pulling out his guns, "That mean I can go make a mess?"
Another pulse hit, causing the biker to drop his guns, "NO" The Omnipotence yelled, "THIS WILL TAKE TIME, NO CHAOS WILL BE CAUSED DURING THE UPGRADE PERIOD"
"Shit." Sambash said to himself, sitting down.
How long was this gonna take?
Kruger stepped down from the train's steps, stepping into the strange world his new partner lived in. He looked around, nothing for miles. He had called him earlier to discuss important matters, he could at least be there waiting for him.
"There you are, DekaMaster." A voice behind him said.
He turned around, finding the train he was on only moments ago to have vanished, replaced by a figure, his partner.
"Please, just call me Kruger. You wanted to speak with me?" Kruger asked the figure, "It seemed… rather urgent."
"Indeed, it is." The figure stepped forward, its cape blowing in a non-existent breeze, "I fear our enemies might be getting stronger. I think it's time for them to learn."
Kruger's ears perked, as he stepped towards his partner, "But what if they aren't ready?" He asked, "What if their world isn't ready?"
"This is the only way their worlds will survive, so they must be ready." The figure continued, sounding upset, "Tell the Director to pick them up in around a week, I need to finish preparing." He pulled out two cards in his gloved hand, handing them to Kruger.
The cards displayed pictures, one showed the two heroes from the other world, Judy Hopps and Nicholas Wilde. The other displayed a symbol, resembling a cross and bones, with the skull replaced by what looked like stylized key.
Kruger sighed, "I'll get on it, Akared." He looked up from the cards, the train was waiting for him. He stepped in, and it drove off.
Cliffhanger!
Anyway not much trivia to point out here, mostly the fact that, in Zootopia, the original Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers wasn't an adaptation of Zyuranger, but instead of Liveman, fitting the animal theme, which is why I mention that the monsters are grown via a gun, and not a magic wand.
I also had a lot of fun writing this chapter, Incinerator Banki was really fun to work with, and the ending fight was pretty fun to plan.
Next time, we leave off where that cliffhanger ended, as Nick and Judy are going to learn more than they wanted about the world.